Andreas Plückthun

Biography

 Andreas has been Full Professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Zurich since 1993. His pioneering scientific work on protein engineering has made him one of the most highly cited scientists in this field and his work has been honored by a number of international awards. He studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and received his graduate education at the University of California San Diego, where he obtained a PhD in 1982 in the group of Prof. Edward Dennis. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department of Harvard University (1982-1985), before becoming group leader at the Genzentrum and Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie in Martinsried, Germany (1985-1993). His work on synthetic antibodies and directed evolution led to the co-founding of MorphoSys (1992), a leading antibody company in Munich. His work on alternative scaffolds led to the co-founding of Molecular Partners (2004), a leading Swiss biotech company. His work on engineering and evolving G-protein coupled receptors led to the co-founding of G7 Therapeutics in Zurich (2014), which has now become Heptares Zurich.

Research Interest

  Biochemistry